U.S. fears meddling in the 2018 elections, but Trump grovels before Russian dictator

In this cartoon by freelancer Milt Priggee, President Trump uses the hammer and sickle to redecorate the exterior of Air Force One.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Just when you think a single week of Donald J. Trump as president couldn't get more bizarre, the New York billionaire tops himself in all the wrong ways.

After last Monday's disastrous press conference with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at his side, Trump spent days amending, correcting and trying to lie himself out his treasonous behavior.

The news media just sat there and soaked it all up for dissemination around the world.

Not a single reporter confronted Trump and urged him "to stop lying to the American people."

Grovels before Putin

Here is an essay by Graham West, spokesman for the Truman Center for National Policy and Truman National Security Project: 

"There’s no softer or more polite way to say it: President Trump groveled before Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. His display – and the conduct of his administration in the days since – sent a dangerous message to our intelligence communities here at home and audiences watching around the world, while also leaving some serious questions unanswered.

"The focal point of the presser [press conference in Helsinki, Finland] was when the president was asked point blank who he believed on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election: his own intelligence agencies, or Vladimir Putin himself. It is a question Trump has struggled with many times before. Predictably, when asked at the presser, he whiffed; his answer was garbled per usual, but he ultimately said he “didn’t see why it would be” Russia who meddled.

"Every news cycle since has been dominated by the White House’s attempts to clarify (that is, change) the president’s statement, with the president qualifying his heavily scripted walk back, saying contradictory things in different interviews, and freewheeling on Twitter. This has all been complicated by contrasting statements from national security leaders within the Trump Administration. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates maintains that the Russians are actively working to interfere in the fall midterms, while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen still can’t admit that they were helping Trump in 2016.

"The net effect of all of this is a massive strain on the relationship between the White House and the intelligence community, which is self-evidently bad for our national security. It is also leading to a failure to respond to what Coates correctly identifies as an ongoing problem: Russian interference in elections to come. Perhaps because they felt the need to rally around their besieged leader, House Republicans blocked Democrats’ attempts to bolster funding for the Election Assistance Commission, which protects the critical voting infrastructure of states.

"There was also optical damage done at the Trump-Putin meeting, on which the eyes of the world were trained. President Trump missed an opportunity to call out Russia’s destructive behavior on the world stage. Instead of denouncing the invasion of Crimea, the downing of a civilian airliner, the poisoning of ex-pats on foreign soil, the killing of journalists, the arrest of opposition leaders, or the protection of murderous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, he offered his classic ‘both sides are to blame’ take when asked about the source of difficulties in the U.S.-Russian relationship...."

(Copyright 2018 Graham West, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

(Graham West is the Communications Director for Truman Center for National Policy and Truman National Security Project, though views expressed here are his own. You can reach West at gwest@trumancnp.org.)